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. 2022 Sep 6:13:1005748.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1005748. eCollection 2022.

From child social impairment to parenting stress in mothers of children with ASD: The role of parental self-efficacy and social support

Fēi Li  1   2 , Mingyu Xu  2 , Danping Wu  2 , Yun Tang  2   3 , Lingli Zhang  2 , Xin Liu  2 , Li Zhou  2   4 , Fei Li  2 , Liping Jiang  1
Affiliations

From child social impairment to parenting stress in mothers of children with ASD: The role of parental self-efficacy and social support

Fēi Li et al. Front Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Objectives: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can exhibit persistent deficits in social communication, causing their mothers to experience elevated parenting stress during the childrearing process. Some internal and external psychosocial resources may mediate or moderate the mother-child relationship, though the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study aimed to explore the predictors of parenting stress in mothers of children with ASD and elucidate the mechanisms underlying the relationship between child social impairment and parenting stress.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted between October 2020 and March 2022 in Shanghai, China. Mothers of children with ASD completed a survey investigating child social impairment, parenting stress, parental self-efficacy, and social support.

Results: A total of 185 mothers of children with ASD were included in the final analysis. 70.27 percent of mothers experienced a clinically significant level of parenting stress. Child social impairment (r = 0.46, P < 0.001), parental self-efficacy (r = -0.58, P < 0.001), and social support (r = -0.35, P < 0.001) were significantly correlated with parenting stress. Parental self-efficacy completely mediated the relationship between child social impairment and parenting stress (B = 0.51, P < 0.001), after controlling for socioeconomic status (SES) correlated with parenting stress. There was no significant moderating effect of social support between child social impairment and parenting stress (B = 0.01, P = 0.09).

Conclusion: Future early intervention programs that focused on child's social communication skills and empowered mothers with related strategies through group-based parent training programs may help reduce parenting stress.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder; mothers; parental self-efficacy; parenting stress; social impairment; social support.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mediation model examining the association between child social impairment and parenting stress through parental self-efficacy. SRS, The Social Responsiveness Scale; PSOC, Parental Self-efficacy of Competence Scale; PSISF, Parenting Stress Index-Short Form; SES, Socioeconomic status. The dashed line represents a non-significant effect.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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